


Nerves

by questionmark007



Series: Sarah Goodkin [2]
Category: Stitchers (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 14:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4669913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/questionmark007/pseuds/questionmark007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron, his sister Sarah and Kirsten go out to dinner so Sarah can get to know Kirsten.</p><p>Cameron's a bit nervous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nerves

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically all fluff. Not much plot but some good sibling banter and a little Camsten, pining style. But who doesn't love a good fluff story?

For his entire childhood, Cameron was kept in a very sheltered, highly monitored environment to make sure he didn’t do anything to stress his heart. He wasn’t supposed to get too excited, or stressed, or anxious or anything really. For the entirety of growing up, his parents went to great lengths to make sure he was content and in the middle of the road emotionally. Since joining the Stitchers Program, he had managed to feel all of these things and is aware that, despite his parents concern, none of these things were going to be his undoing. He could be excited or worried and his heart kept going. Which was good, because right now, Cameron was very nervous. But not about a case, or something risky that Kirsten was doing, but because he was going to dinner with Kirsten and his older sister, Sarah.

The dinner had been set for six at some trendy new restaurant that Sarah had picked out. Their involvement in their previous case was over, and they did not have a new sample, so Maggie let them off for the day a bit early, for which Cameron was grateful. As much as he loved his sister, leaving her alone in his apartment made him nervous (Cameron spent a lot of time nervous, okay? It’s kind of a job requirement), as if she would come across some piece of paper that was lying around that just so happened to explain everything the Stitchers Program did, including Cameron’s own time in the Corpse Cassette. He knew he was being silly but he and Sarah never lied to each other. That was their thing, since before he was in the hospital getting his surgery, he could always count on her to tell him the whole truth, something he returned. Until he left his position at MIT to come to the Stitchers Program.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, he opened the door to his apartment only to be met with a wall of sound. He paused for a moment, letting his ears adjust to the cacophony before him. Walking further into the apartment, he discovered that Sarah had commandeered his jukebox stereo system and was now blasting Taylor Swift as she sat in the kitchen, very focused on the drawing in front of her, colored pencils scattered everywhere.

“Do you think the music is loud enough, Chief?” He asked, dialing the sound down.

Sarah jumped, looking alarmed, sending colored pencils flying, “Don’t do that, Cam! Don’t sneak up on me!”

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you! If you’d been listening to music at a reasonable level like normal people, you’d have heard me come in,” Cameron defended, leaning against the counter and trying not to smile.

“Whatever, Cam,” she rolled her eyes and going back to her work. “You know loud music helps me concentrate and I’ve got a lot of work to do by next week.”

“If you’re this stressed, maybe we should call off dinner,” Cameron tried.

“Not a chance. You’re head over heels for this girl and I want to get to know her so when you get engaged, I can help tell Mom how great she is when Mom tries to find a problem with her.” Sarah gave him her most serious expression.

“Engaged? We’re not even dating! Come on, Speedy, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he spluttered.

“Yeah, yeah we both know it’s only a matter of time.” She shrugged, too focused on coloring the design in front of her to even bother looking at him. “You should go shower before we meet up with Kirsten. And I set out some clothes for you to wear.”

He rolled his eyes and walked into his bedroom, knowing from experience that it wasn’t worth the argument.

An hour and a half later, he and Sarah were arriving at the restaurant. The outfit Sarah had picked wasn’t actually as bad as he feared: dark pants and a light blue dress shirt. It wasn’t even a particularly dressy restaurant, but Sarah insisted since it was a ‘special occasion’ and he wasn’t going to ruin this for her. Plus, as she frequently argued, clothes were her thing and she didn’t argue with him when he wanted to talk sci-fi for hours (to which he always responded by reminding her that she likes sci-fi too and had taken him to a Star Wars movie marathon happening at a local theatre, dressed in costumes she made, for one of his birthdays).

They walked in and were seated almost immediately because, apparently, Sarah knew a guy who had gotten them reservations. She’d waved it off, saying “Fashion connections never cease to come in handy”

So now here he was, as Kirsten had called him once, a Nervous Nelly, waiting anxiously for Kirsten to arrive and hoping that this dinner wouldn’t be a disaster. He’d never really introduced a girl to anyone in his family before, and even though he and Kristen weren’t dating, he still wanted her to get along with his sister. “Sarah, I know you’re excited about getting to know Kirsten, but please don’t embarrass me. I have to see her everyday and—“

“Cam, I’m not going to try and ruin this for you, okay?” Sarah put her hand on his arm comfortingly. “Have a little bit of faith in your big sister.”

A waiter brought over a basket of bread and filled their water glasses before disappearing. Cameron grabbed a breadstick with shaky hands and started eating it.

“Okay, so she’s probably going to be late because she has no—“

“Time perception, I know,” she cut him off patiently. “Calm down,” she glanced down at the remaining piece of bread in his hand, “and will you stop stress eating?” Cameron made a show of dropping the bread on to the bread plate as dramatically as he could and slumped back in his seat.

Logically, he knew he shouldn’t be this nervous, but knowing that didn’t stop the anxiety. He glanced around the restaurant and his gaze landed on a familiar blonde head at the entrance. He caught Kirsten’s eye and she walked over to the table. She was wearing an outfit similar to what she had worn to Mia’s launch party a few weeks previous.

“Sorry, the Uber driver had no idea where he was going,” Kirsten sat down to the left of Cameron and opposite Sarah.

“No worries! I ordered us a bottle of wine,” Sarah smiled at her, “Cam got some weird beer ‘cause he’s lame and thinks he’s a hipster.”

“Okay, that’s not true. It’s a seasonal microbrew made in—“ Cameron stopped, seeing the identical expressions of bemusement on both Kirsten and Sarah’s faces. “Never mind,” he ducked his head.

“No please, tell us more about this weird hipster beer,” Sarah grinned and Cameron responded by sticking his tongue out at her.

“Very mature, Dr. Goodkin,” Kirsten chimed in.

“See, this is why dinner was a bad idea! You’re ganging up on me,” Cameron tried to turn his laugh in to a disgruntled huff.

“Sorry Cameron, you just make it so easy!” Sarah laughed as the waiter reappeared to bring the bottle of wine, Cameron’s beer and to take their dinner orders.

“You should hear all the nerd references he makes at work,” Kirsten told Sarah after the waiter had left.

“Nerd references?” Cameron cut in, pretending to be affronted.

“Nerd references and silly nicknames,” Kirsten confirmed.

“Do tell,” Sarah sat forward slightly.

“Before he runs any…test at the lab, he has to make some sort of reference. Thunderbirds are go, where we’re going we don’t need roads, or the star date,” Kirsten smirked at Cameron.

“No Doctor Who references?” Sarah asked.

“Not that I’ve noticed.” Kirsten looked at Cameron to respond. He couldn’t remember any off the top of his head so he just shrugged.

“You’re slipping, Doc. What would little eleven-year-old Cameron say?” Sarah shook her head at him, she paused before asking: “So what names does he call you?”

“Umm…Sunshine, Cupcake, Ace, Pork Chop once which was really bad. Mostly Stretch though,” Kirsten replied slowly. “Has he always called people silly nicknames?”

“He’s sitting right here,” Cameron interjected. Were they really going to talk about him like he wasn’t there?

Sarah rolled her eyes at him then continued like he hadn’t spoken, so Cameron took that to mean yes they were going to talk about him like he wasn’t there. “Pretty much. He started when he was in the hospital.”

“Because I was so bored that coming up with nicknames actually seemed like a good time,” Cameron muttered, taking a sip of his beer.

“You started it to annoy people. Mostly me.” Sarah turned to him, “And then they became terms of endearment. Though I’m still on the fence about if ‘Sarah-Bear’ qualifies as endearing…”

“You call me ‘Cam-Cam’. I think we’re even.” Cameron held up his hands.

Kirsten smiled at them.

“What?” he asked her after a moment.

“Nothing, I’ve just never really seen siblings interact before.”

“You’re an only child?” Sarah asked. Kirsten nodded. “I was too, for two years. Those were the days.”

“You’re hilarious, Sarah.” Cameron rolled his eyes for what felt like the thousandth time.

“I know right? If this fashion thing doesn’t work out, I should totally go into stand up.”

They lapsed into silence for a few moments before Sarah stood, saying she needed to use the restroom.

Cameron waited till she had disappeared to the restroom before turning to Kirsten: “Thank you for doing this. I know it’s weird, but she’s really insistent when she wants to be.”

“It’s not weird at all. I like her. She reminds me a little of Camille,” Kirsten responded, fidgeting with her napkin. Cameron had never really thought about it, but Kirsten was right: his sister and Camille were very similar in some ways.

He nodded and paused, taking a breath before saying: “When she comes back, she’s probably going to try and tell you a bunch of stories from my childhood. Don’t believe any of them, okay?She likes to exaggerate. A lot.”

Kirsten looked at him, eyebrows raised clearly not believing him, “Whatever you say, Girlfriend.”

Cameron bit back a groan and rubbed the back of his neck. Sarah returned after moment, along with the waiter, who brought them their food. They spent a few minutes in silence, enjoying their food before Cameron’s prediction came true.

“So, Kirsten, anything you want to know about Cameron?” Sarah started, throwing Cameron an evil grin. “Maybe the time he almost blew up the kitchen when he was first learning how to cook? Or how he dressed up as a different version of the Doctor from Doctor Who for Halloween every year for eight years?”

Deciding to just accept his fate, Cameron settled into his seat, and listened as Sarah regaled them with tales of growing up in the Goodkin house. Eventually the conversation shifted away form him and onto other topics, like Sarah’s latest designs, various codes Kirsten had written while she was still a PhD student and everything in between. He chimed in occasionally but he was mostly contented to listen and pretend, just for this dinner, that this could be his future: sitting around with his two favorite people, talking about anything and everything. Taking a deep breath, he acknowledged how his nerves had been in vain. He didn’t know what the future held (especially not his future with Kirsten), but for now, this was enough. For now, this was perfect.


End file.
